12.29.2016

553. Christmas Week

Commerce Court winter
Hi everyone, I hope you all had a nice Christmas/holiday season!!! As you can see, I took a little un-expected break off from blogging/social media this past week. I went to my mom's and dad's places for a few days over Christmas to spend time with my family and it was nice to just relax for a few days and have a semi-break from the online world. We went to a midnight mass on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day, my sister and I went to watch the new Star Wars movie. On the other days, we (mostly I) had Planet Earth marathons. I got my dad the Planet Earth 2 dvds as one of his presents which I was actually very excited about as I've been wanting to watch them since the release this year. The first Planet Earth is still my favourite documentary series ever. After I finished watching the new ones I started re-watching the original ones again. The film quality of the new series is really amazing and very impressive how they managed to capture some of the scenes on camera. They inspire me to want to see all parts of the world someday. Besides watching that, we also watched movies, baked two cakes and a loaf of bread, made a lot of soup (I was quite sick for a few days) and I took Hennessy out a lot for walks and to play in the snow. My parents live about half an hour north of me so there was a lot more snow up there than I have in downtown. & it was Hennessy's first time going in snow almost as tall as him.

nadege christmas chocolate
This was a chocolate picture I wanted to give my sister. I bought it a few days before I was supposed to give it to her, and left it in the bag beside a window. Then when I took it out for a look, I was horrified to see half of it had melted!! lol. I had to rush to try to get another one but unfortunately they had all sold out by then..so I bought her some others instead. & still gave her this one as well. Interesting fact about me: I actually don't like chocolate at all. I love all other types of sweet stuff though (such as candy) but not chocolate. Everyone I know loves it though so I gave it a lot this Christmas.

stellasport disco tights
My new Adidas/Stellasport/Stella McCartney "disco tights" (with my pet shoes)!! I love them so much. Since I started doing yoga and needing yoga/exercise clothes, I've been obsessed with Adidas..Stellasport in particular. I want to get the whole collection.

Day and Night Steakhouse
A few nights before Christmas, my sister, my mom and I went for a dinner at Day & Night Steakhouse. We come here quite a lot. Their lobster bisque soup is really good and my favourite is the butterfly garlic shrimp (in the photo below)

Day and Night Steakhouse
Day and Night Steakhouse
Day and Night Steakhouse
Day and Night Steakhouse
Day and Night Steakhouse
chinese desserts
At another place for more desserts

Hennessy pomeranian
Now here are a bunch of random photos during our days uptown! I brought Hennessy into the backyard to play but I think the high level of snow made it quite difficult for him to run around lol. Would've been nicer in freshly fallen snow.

himalayan cat
This is Blueberry. We had him since I was in grade 7 I think..so he is quite old now :( He is a blue point Himalayan cat.

saltwater aquarium
In my dad's aquarium...

saltwater fish
aquarium
pomeranian
pomeranian Hennessy
Found a very comfy spot/wishing I would stop snapping pics

Pomeranian
David Chow chocolate
Chocolates by David Chow (2 are missing/eaten already). I gave this to my sister as well.

chicken noodle soup
My sickness/chicken noodle soup

Williams Sonoma gingerbread
This is my favourite!! It's sooo good. I love gingerbread. This is a gingerbread cake/bread from Williams Sonoma. We also made a chocolate chip one (below). With my mom I also made a loaf of bread (completely from scratch). Bread actually takes so much more effort and time than cake does. You have to knead the dough a few times and wait some time in between to let it expand before kneading it again. The result was well worth it though. It tasted really good..I took some pics but unfortunately I deleted them by accident =\

Williams Sonoma quick bread chocolate chip
vegetable soup
I also made a lot of vegetable soup.

Dimmi Toronto
I came back downtown a couple days ago. Yesterday my mom came down and we went to Yorkville for some shopping. We had lunch at a cozy Italian restaurant called Dimmi. I love the atmosphere here and the pasta is delicious!

Dimmi Toronto
Dimmi Toronto
Yorkville Toronto
Hazelton Ave Gallery
Yorkville Toronto
Pottery Barn Christmas
So this could be my last post for 2016!! I think 2017 will be quite an eventful year for me. Well so far I have a couple major things planned. Maybe I'll talk about them more next time. I hope you all have a wonderful and fun new year's eve!

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12.17.2016

552. Recent Life | The Week before Christmas

Nadege Christmas
I love the Christmas season! I always do more and take a lot of photos during this time that I can barely keep up with my blog. I also love buying presents and festive food like the gingerbread and macarons above (from Nadege)..as well as Williams Sonoma of course! They're always my favourite 2 places to shop at this time of year. So this week has been quite eventful..here is a big photo update:

Christmas Market Toronto
Last Sunday my friend and I went to the Christmas Market at the Distillery District. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing because I hadn't planned to go there this year. But that day it finally snowed here in downtown, and I felt it would've made the perfect atmosphere! I know they are usually extremely busy on weekends, but because there was so much snow that day not a lot of people went and we didn't have to line up at all. Apparently some people lined up 2 hours on some days. It was so much fun and festive!

Christmas Market Toronto
Distillery Christmas Market Toronto
Christmas Market Toronto
Distillery Christmas Market
Distillery District Christmas Market
Christmas moose
Toronto Christmas market
Distillery Christmas Market apple cider
Apple cider is my favourite winter drink!! I remember the first year when I went to the Christmas Market (it was also the first year they did it), I had so much Glühwein and was obsessed with it. We had it beside a fire pit which now they don't have..actually they do have them on a restaurant patio this year but it's not as authentic. The first year they actually made the fire with logs and they had to keep turning the logs and putting more in as they burned. The ashes kept flying in my face but I loved it. This year they only have gas fire pits (I think) and not that many of them as before.

Distillery Christmas Market
gingerbread house Christmas Market
pink Christmas trees
I really want to visit a Christmas Market in Europe one year..especially in Germany. It's one of the things on my bucket list. Maybe next year...?

Beer Bistro salmon
For dinner we decided to come back to our area/Beer Bistro. I always get the salmon dish when I come now. It's the best salmon I've had in Toronto. They changed it now unfortunately..but this one is still good. One of the reasons I love blogging is to document my life so I can read back in the future..here is an example. THIS (in the first photo) is what their salmon used to be like.

Royal York Hotel Christmas
Afterwards, we went to the Royal York Hotel for some dessert at their Library Bar. I wanted to come here to see their Christmas decorations as well. It always feels so cozy here and I love coming around the holidays. This year it looks like they didn't do much decor though..before they had a train going around the tree, a huge gingerbread house, Christmas Carol carvings/statues, etc.

Royal York Hotel Christmas
Library Bar Royal York
library bar desserts
Dundas Square Christmas
festive nails
Festive nails!

Ichikami hair products
Finally here is a non Christmas related photo lol. They are hair products I bought from Japan. It's my favourite..the scent is soooo nice (smells kind of like peach). I've bought them here as well but obviously they're a lot more expensive here. In Japan they're just like regular drugstore hair products. They're really good though. I wanted to buy more while I was there but they were just too heavy to bring back.

view of Toronto
Here is my view which you've probably seen me post a million times already..but I can never get tired of it. The sky looked really cool that evening so I had to take a shot. It looks better in person though.

gingerbread snowman
Gingerbread snowman!! I bought a box of these as well as the white/sugar cookie version. They're sooo good. Gingerbread is my favourite food during the holidays (while apple cider is my favourite drink). They are from Mad Batter Bakers - I think they make the best gingerbread.

Williams Sonoma apple cider
Apple Cider Williams Sonoma
For apple cider, my favourite is from Williams Sonoma and Second Cup (but the Second Cup ones are really hard to find).

Cactus Club
Last night I went out with a friend from my building and her friend who I met for the first time. We went to Cactus Club's rooftop lounge. It was a lot of fun! Luckily Cactus Club is connected to my building from the underground path, so we didn't have to venture out in the snowstorm or bring coats either. Also I was able to wear heels instead of the moon boots you see behind me in the photo below hahah. After that we came back to our lobby bar for some late night food. & met some interesting engineers after their work party in my building's ballroom.


Here was my outfit!

leftbanked outfit

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